Oliphant on Degrees

Oliphant’s article draws the often forgotten but crucial distinction between a college education and a degree in literate competency. As a former high school and college debater, many of my evenings and weekends were spent reading works as diverse as the Harvard Law Review to Richard Price’s “The Wanderers.”

Such reading not only enlarged my knowledge of facts and events, but instilled a capacity for understanding why such events occur and how this information applies to life in general. By the time I reached graduate school, my abilities to reson were sharp enough to make meaningful and lasting contributions.

Unfortunately, teachers and parents fail to realize that reading is the single most important act the student can perform. Through the pages of a book we lose ourselves in a labyrinth of ideas and emotions, all of which help shape our intellectual and moral fiber.

How true the words of the United Negro College Fund slogan ring for all: “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”

Read!

RON CARR

Playa del Rey